This watercolour, painted in 1998, is of a neighborhood medical center on the corner of Armitage and Damen avenues in Chicago, Illinois. I originally wanted to paint the building when I noticed the 'Schlitz' insignia at the top of the building, and saw a certain amount of irony in a medical center being housed in a former drinking establishment. It seemed somehow fitting, given the current state of the medical establishment in the United States. As the painting progressed, I found myself pursuing twin objectives. On the one hand, I wanted to capture the building itself, once obviously prosperous, but now fallen on somewhat harder times. The medical center was clearly not one of those state-of-the-art places, and was probably caring for the neighborhood families, most of whom would not have had a lot of money to throw around. On the other hand, I couldn't help wanting to attack the current medical establishment, who, through decades of failing to restrain their individual greed, have profoundly injured society, and their own once noble profession as well.
I found a way to accomplish both ends, making both social and esthetic statements in the same painting, by altering the words in the signs. I removed the phone number from the awning, and replaced it with 'Lotto.' The adjacent building, which is actually a currency exchange, also has its sign changed, indicating that it is a pharmacy, with windows and sign proclaiming that 'guns' 'drugs' and 'used tires' are for sale within.
The painting itself is done with a high degree of realism, but also a good deal of simplification, and captures the feeling that I was going for pretty well.
Some of the 'authorities' claim that it is a poor idea to mix politics and art, but for myself I see no harm in breaking this rule, as long as one understands the consequences. Today's burning issue will probably not be much interest to someone fifty years from now, and may even seem silly. Still, painting can serve more than one function, and so I don't mind if some of my work ages badly. Perhaps it would be less honest of me to not address the present, when the present needs to be addressed. I suspect that 'Medical Center Lotto' will age much better than 'Medical Insignia 2000,' since the latter is so strictly topical that it will not stand well, once the issue that it addresses has passed.
This small oil on canvas was painted in 1999 in one sitting, using just black and white paint, and a little medium to thin them down. The staff and wings of the medical insignia have been morphed into a particularly brutal looking instrument, somewhere between a hammer and a weapon. The snakes have morphed into a dollar sign.
No one will accuse either of these paintings of being too subtle, especially the second one. If certain members of the medical professions take offense, they should consider the fact that they also, through their behaviour, particularly their greed, have offended many millions of people, and much worse besides.
A century ago, doctors were paid directly by their patients, and because of that, a doctor's income was directly related to his patients' incomes. With the advent of third party payment (insurance, etc.), doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies were able to increase their charges to whatever the third party would stand for. The insurance companies simply passed the costs back to their future customers by raising the rates, and the cycle began again. The cumulative results of about 50 years of this are now the subject of daily discussion at every level of our society. All of science's wonderful advances are rapidly benefiting a smaller and smaller segment of society; those who can still afford to pay, or have the means to pass the cost along to society in one way or another.
Those in the medical establishment have two ways to reduce the cost of care; one is to reduce the amount of money that they themselves receive in compensation, and the other is to reduce the amount of care that is given per dollar received. For the most part, they have opted for the latter, under the name HMO. Now, instead of individual doctors becoming moderately wealthy, a few individuals, the owners of the HMO's, become obscenely wealthy.
This situation has compromised the credibility of the entire medical establishment. While this would be bad if we were talking about auto or widget manufacturers, it is exponentially worse in the medical professions, because it undermines the doctor-patient relationship. In a society that now is learning to see doctors, hospitals, HMO's and health insurance providers, and drug companies in the same light as politicians and used car salesmen, how can people trust their doctors enough to put themselves wholeheartedly into their care?
For the time being, those of the medical establishment, except for a few exceptional individuals, seem content to take the money and run, leaving their patient's to fend for themselves as best they can. Instead of "First, do no harm," the watchwords of the New Medical Establishment will be 'caveat emptor'.... or perhaps 'In hoc signo, vinces.'